Tomas Ybarra-Frausto and Amalia Mesa-Bains: a critical discourse from within.(Forum)(Critical Essay)

Tomas Ybarra-Frausto and Amalia Mesa-Bains have written extensively over the past three decades on the history and criticism of Chicano/a art. The corpus of Ybarra-Frausto's writing has focused on defining and exploring the complexities of Chicano/a art and culture, from his early work with Joseph Sommers on modern Chicano writers to his historical overviews of Chicano art and history, written solo or with Shifra Goldman. Two of his most significant essays address the multiple roles of the vernacular in Chicano/a art: "Arte Chicano: Images of a Community," and "Rasquachismo, a Chicano Sensibility." (1) Ybarra-Frausto's background is as a literary scholar and professor at the University of Washington and Stanford, and a former member of the Seattle-based Teatro del Piojo [Theater of the Head Louse]. He is currently associate director of the humanities at the Rockefeller Foundation.

Mesa-Bains is most recognized as an installation artist and cultural critic. She is also a psychologist, former public school educator in San Francisco, and a 1992 recipient of the MacArthur "genius" fellowship. Currently she is the director of the Institute of Visual and Public Art at California State University, Monterey Bay. She writes primarily about feminine and feminist creativity, particularly among Chicanas and other Latinas. From her early articles in the alternative Bay Area press on …